Reflecting on one year ago today…Five years ago, photos from Kauai…

It’s hard to imagine that the infections manifested for so long, but as we treated them with medication and sterile bandages, day after day, it only became worse, not better. 

It wasn’t until this late a date, many weeks later, that the doctors felt I had to be admitted to the hospital for more surgery by a plastic surgeon. It wasn’t for a “cosmetic effect,” as one may assume, hearing the new surgeon was indeed a plastic surgeon. It was to save my legs and possibly my life. 

We thought it would be gone in seconds.

Plastic surgeons are specialists in serious wound management, performing surgery, and then the ongoing treatment, which in my case, lasted for many months after the two surgeries.

For that post, one year ago, please click here.

And here I am now hunkered down in a hotel in Mumbai, India, due to a lockdown due to the virus, and I’m walking the halls to the tune of 6000-8000 steps per day (it’s hard to hit the supposed magic number of 10,000 steps walking the halls of a hotel) without pain, adding strength every day. 

Over this past year, I failed to walk this much daily through building strength and agility, which I should have. I have no excuses other than sheer laziness and, overall, being a person who doesn’t love walking alone due to the boredom factor. 

Now, with the help of my FitBit, my resting heart rate has gone from an average of 65 beats per minute to an average of 58 beats per minute. In this short period walking the halls with vigor, once an hour throughout the day, my heart health has improved to this degree.

We assumed this was its final descent, turning to walk back inside.

Of course, a low resting heart rate can be achieved through medication or exercise. Since I don’t take medication to lower my heart rate, exercise is the best option. An efficient, lower heart rate indicates better heart health. Now, this motivates me more than anything.

We could be sitting in this hotel for the next several months during the COVID-19 lockdown in India. Continuing this walking will only prove to be a benefit for me in the long run. I needed to do this.

Once an hour, I check my watch. I leave my comfortable shoes on all day to quickly head out the door with the room key card in my hand and walk. It takes only four minutes to complete the hallway “course.” 

In time, I may add a second round, ramping it up to eight minutes. But I don’t want to force it at this point when it’s going so well. I’ll continue to monitor my heart rate to stay within limits recommended for my age, a target maximum heart rate of 128 beats per minute. 

As I began to turn off the camera and cover the lens, Tom gently spun me around and said, “Wait, Sweetie! It’s peeking out from the clouds below.”

My goal at this point is to stay within that 128 beats per minute as I walk vigorously, swinging my arms. I’m now listening to podcasts on my phone to fend off boredom, and yes, most of them are news on COVID-19. It’s hard to focus on anything else right now. Today’s photos are from our blissful time spent in Kauai, Hawaii, five years ago. These sunset photos remind us of the beauty we’ve been blessed to experience throughout the world over the past 7½ years of world travel.